Friday, 28 December 2012

U.S Ambassador: The reasons American investors did not invest in Cambodia is because of human rights and lawlessness issues in Cambodia អាមេរិក​មិន​មក​វិនិយោគ​នៅ​កម្ពុជា​ដោយសារ​បញ្ហា​សិទ្ធិ​មនុស្ស​និង​នីតិរដ្ឋ

ដោយ វណ្ណ វិចារ2012-12-26 RFA

Supporting Cambodia’s Economic Development

Published: 23-Dec-12 By William E. Todd, U.S ambassador to Cambodia

William E. Todd

Thank you for the many interesting questions in
response to my “Ask the Ambassador” column. Please continue to send me
your questions at AskAMBToddPP@state.gov.

Last week, I traveled
to Singapore to promote U.S. investment in Cambodia. Two weeks prior, I
was in Bangkok doing the same thing. I plan to go on similar trips in
the region next year. Why am I taking these trips? What do I hope to
accomplish? Quite simply, I am working on expanding the middle class
in Cambodia. A strong middle class is the best engine for developing
the economy and reducing poverty. In the United States, the growth of
the American middle class gave average working people a stake in the
economy and civil society. Instead of living hand-to-mouth, middle
class Americans began to think about the future – we saved money for
retirement, we made sure our children received a quality education, and
we made sure the government was responsive to our needs. America is
often called “the land of opportunity” because, no matter how humble
your beginnings, you will have the chance for a livable wage and decent
schools for your children. It was the growth of the middle class that
made this possible.

How do we expand the middle class in
Cambodia? In one sense, expanding the middle class is like a jigsaw
puzzle – you need all the pieces to fit together in order to have a
complete picture. The first piece lies in creating the right conditions
for economic growth. The Cambodian government has made significant
progress in laying the foundation for growth by creating a relatively
pro-business environment. Cambodia, for example, allows 100 percent
foreign ownership of businesses, exemptions from export taxes, duty free
imports of capital goods, favorable corporate tax policies, and a
liberal policy on work permits for expatriate personnel. These
policies, although a good start, still need to be taken further. To
help develop recommendations on how the Cambodian government could
improve the business environment to further open the Cambodian market to
foreign investment – particularly through regulatory and legislative
changes– I have formed a team comprised of Embassy personnel and members
of the American Chamber of Commerce.

The second piece of the
puzzle is developing the country’s human capital. While people often
point to Cambodia’s substantial timber reserves and petroleum resources,
its greatest asset is its youth. With nearly 70 percent of the
population under 35 years of age, Cambodia has a large and growing
supply of labor. If the labor force expects to reach the middle class,
it will need greater skills. The U.S. government has spent millions of
dollars on training and education for Cambodian citizens to lay the
foundation for middle class development. For example, USAID’s Improved
Basic Education in Cambodia project is helping the Cambodian government
develop a school curriculum to benefit over 140,000 students,with 5,600
students receiving scholarships to support their lower secondary
education. The U.S. government also has about 115 Peace Corps
volunteers in Cambodia, who are training primary and secondary teachers
as well as working to build the capacity of healthcare professionals in
the provinces. By focusing on education and training, we will help
Cambodia’s labor force migrate to higher-wage, higher-skilled jobs that
will expand the middle class.

The final piece of the puzzle is
bringing these higher-skilled jobs to Cambodia. Without good-paying jobs
that allow ordinary Cambodians to buy everyday consumer goods like
food, housing, and clothes, the Cambodian economy faces a formidable
challenge in reaching the next stage of development.

One reader
has asked, “Why don’t huge U.S. corporations invest in Cambodia?” My
trips to Bangkok and Singapore were meant to find an answer to this
question and to encourage regionally-based and sizeable U.S. companies
to expand their operations to Cambodia. I gave speeches to U.S.
business chambers, met individually with scores of businesses ranging
from computer manufacturers to oil companies, and led a business
roundtable. At every opportunity, I pointed out that Cambodia has a lot
to offer U.S. businesses looking to get in on the ground floor of a
surging market. While the growth rates of many countries in Southeast
Asia are flattening, Cambodia is far from reaching its peak.

But
like putting together any jigsaw puzzle, knowing what the pieces are
and actually fitting them together are two very different things.
Cambodia needs to appreciate the importance of how human rights, open
political discourse, and rule of law fit into the investment and middle
class mosaic. A more open political space, greater transparency, and
less corruption would benefit the entire country by encouraging foreign
investment. If Cambodia can take substantial, concrete steps towards
resolving these issues, it will mean more investment from U.S. companies
and from businesses the world over. Remember, it is not what you say,
but rather what you do that is important.Or as my high school Latin
teacher would often tell me acta,non dictum, which means “deeds, not
words.”

As we can see, the expansion of the middle class and the
number of higher-paying skilled jobs are vital factors to economic
growth in Cambodia. Please accept my heartfelt wishes for a happy
holiday and thank you all very much for reading my column. As always,
you may send your questions to me in English or Khmer at
AskAMBToddPP@state.gov,and of course, you can follow my blog at
http://blogs.usembassy.gov/todd/.

William E. Todd is U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia
មូលហេតុ​ដែល​បណ្ដាល​ឲ្យ​សាជីវកម្ម​ក្រុមហ៊ុន​ធំៗ របស់​អាមេរិក
មិន​មក​វិនិយោគ​នៅ​កម្ពុជា គឺ​ដោយសារ​ការ​គោរព​សិទ្ធិ​មនុស្ស
និង​នីតិរដ្ឋ​នៅ​កម្ពុជា នៅ​មាន​កម្រិត​នៅ​ឡើយ។

11 comments:

Anonymous
said...

As long as the US markets are still open for Cambodia madeproducts , China is very happy to monopolize the investmentand Hun Sen doesn't really care about US investment eitherfor he knows for sure that US is indirectly helping PPenhgovernment with MFN ( Most Favor Nations ) status . All products , whether legal or not legal , are end up in US consumers hands eg. rosewood were illegally sold to Vietnam or China then it is used to make furnitures which are sold for American living room ... Economic sanction is the effectiveway to teach Cambodian ruler .

The stinky laws for business and trade with the international has been created and manipulated by Hun Sen's crooked Vietnamese advisers and comrades like Sok An, and other illegal Vietnamese administrators who speak, write and read Khmer language (but they are terrible to communicate in the Khmer language) and they enrich themselves without benefiting to Cambodian country and people.

We need to get rid all the Vietnamese operation and occupation in Cambodia. It is time to rebuild Cambodia and allow the Vietnamese masters in Hanoi and Vietnamese folks to pay the heavy prices for all the damages to Cambodia for more that three decades and beyond.

Vietnam is a thief or crooked country and nation and their Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi have been secretly controlling their stupid Vietnamese installed Prime Minister Hun Sen who has misled and destroyed Cambodian country and people until Cambodia is still under development today.

6:08 PM, I agree with you 100%. Many Cambodians, and especially Hun Sen and his supporters, forgot that America is Cambodia's biggest trading partners, importing about $3 billion of Cambodian-made garment made possible by MFN (most favored nation) status. This status exempts or charge very little import tariff on goods imported from Cambodia. As a result, MFN status has drawn investors to Cambodia, especially Chinese companies because America has imported quota on imports from China.

So, indirectly, America's MFN has drawn investors to Cambodia anyway, so in Hun Sen's eyes, Cambodia doesn't need to do direct business with America or doesn't need direct American investments because the MFN has drawn investors from other part of the world already, notably China.

The only way to soften Hun Sen's dictatorial rule is to imposed travel sanctions on all Hun Sen's family and his cronies like what America did with members of the Burmese junta. That travel sanctions imposed on Burmese officials really worked. What America can do with Hun Sen's and his cronies is to not issue any visas to Hun sen and his family and cronies found to have been the human rights abusers. America can also freeze their assets deposited in American banks around the world. If America failed to get tough with Hun Sen, he will never understand the diplomatic language and will still continue to practice human rights abuses and corruption in Cambodia. Tough actions, and not words, is the only and best way to deal with Hun Sen.

Agree with you, but we have to be careful with the second Killing Fields coming from the secret Vietnamese agents. We are concerned.

We ask for the UN, EU, America or International Community to put sanctions first against Vietnam which is the one that has caused the major problems to Cambodia as well as Laos. Therefore, Hun Sen will be stuck without having his Vietnamese bosses in Hanoi to assist and protect him. So, Khmer people and Khmer armies will kill him and his secret Vietnamese crooks who works for him to collect wealth and destroy Cambodia's natural resources. America, EU, UN and International Community need to know this fact about the Vietnamese leaders who are behind all these problems and use Hun Sen as a hub serves Vietnamese bastards' interests by cheating, stealing, breaking the laws, creating lawless systems and human rights violations and beyond.

Communist Vietnam and Hun Sen should be punished and sanctioned, not putting sanctions against Cambodia. Cambodian people and armies did not cause the problem. Period!!!

It would be better for Cambodia and Cambodians to have American businesses doing direct business in Cambodia.This way we can directly benefit from the advanced American expertise and technology.The question is : Did Ambassador Todd discuss his facts findings and America concerns with Hun Sen directly ?After all, Hun Sen had two of children to study in the United States, not China.

American Middle Class is shrinking fast. American society is no longer considered to be the capitalism which is based on competition, but rather a Social Corporatism. Social Corporation is base on price gouging and profits for the few. The practice is inconsistent with competitiveness of the free market. Even its government is working for the so-call super-citizens. Because of this unfairness practice which allowed and implemented by the policy makers, the terminology “leave-it-to-the markets” has become useless. While Mom and Pop shops (small businesses) got blown up by corporations’ greed, the government bails out corporations and banks. By using Wall Street as an instrument to measure economic growths is purely incompetent and very much bringing up water to the nose for the middle class. Perhaps one day, the notion of “give me the liberty or give me death” can once again rise to the surface of the water.

The idea for the people, of the people, and by the people is dead. The American Middle Class is being ignored for so long to the point they are unable to pursue happiness. Their votes mean nothing. The left and the right are no difference. Their democracy is being hijacked by corporations. From shoes they wear for comfort to pills they take illness and everything else in between are dictated and manipulated by corporations. The battle has yet to come for the Middle Class, America already lost. Now it is not a matter of classes struggle any more but it is a matter of survival. Thus, the U. S. needs to ramify and to separate Corporations and Government just as they did with Religions and Government before they can dictate other what to do or what to believe. My view on Social Corporatism is as evil as Social Communism which should be used as the point lookout for Cambodians and the eyes opener for Americans.

The reason that American corporations could not penetrate and infuse into Cambodia is because Hun Sen Government does not play by their rules. It has nothing to do with human right issues in the country. Don’t do what I do, but do what I said does not work in Cambodia.

To 11:08 am,Your writing ability is superb, but your thought and analysis are way off course.Not because Hun Sen does not play by the " American " rules, it is because Dictator and Traitor Hun Sen has been selling his country and himself to Yuon and the Chinese.

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